Mei Gan Cai Kao Rou 梅干菜烤肉

| By: Mindy Yao |

Mei Gan Cai Kao Rou is a warm dish made with braised pork belly and Mei Gan Cai, a type of dried vegetables. It is a well-known dish from Shaoxing, China, but can also be found in other Southern provinces in China. The exact recipe for this dish varies depending on the region, but the key ingredients stay the same. This recipe is a common home-cooked version of Mei Gan Cai Kao Rou from the Shaoxing region.

Ingredients

Yield: 3-4 servings

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 25 minutes

• Pork belly: 720g

• Shaoxing homemade Mei Gan Cai: about 200g (same portion as the pork)

  • Note: Mei Gan Cai from grocery stores needs to be rinsed first to drain away any sandy water

• Seasonings:

  • Table sugar: 1 tsp

  • Soy Sauce: 1 tbsp

  • Shaoxing wine/Chinese cooking wine: 2 tbsp

    • Possible substitutes if you can’t find at the store: dry sherry, Mirin, Japanese Rice Wine

  • Cooking oil: 1.5 tbsp

Cooking Instructions

1. Place the uncut pork belly into a pot. Add enough water to cover it

2. Wait for the water to boil (for about 2 minutes). Remove water and set the pork aside. This step aims to remove impurities from the pork.

3. Wash the pot and wipe off any water on the outside pot surface.

4. Cut the pork belly into 1’’ thick pieces.

5. Preheat the pot for about thirty seconds until it is dry inside the pot and add oil to the pot. Slowly rotate the pot until a layer of oil covers the bottom of the pot. The purpose of this step is to prevent the pork from sticking to the pot.

6. Carefully put pork belly pieces into the pot. Use a turner spatula to flip pork pieces.

7. Add Shaoxing wine evenly into the pot. Stir the pot with the turner spatula.

8. Repeat step 7 with soy sauce.

9. Repeat step 7 with sugar.

10. Repeat step 7 with Mei Gan Cai.

11. Mix all the ingredients and cook for about 5 minutes. Carefully separate the pork belly pieces from the Mei Gan Cai using chopsticks and set them aside.

12. Prepare a large bowl that can contain all the ingredients. Add Mei Gan Cai and pork in layers. The exact number of layers depends on the bowl being used. But make sure the bottom and top layer is Mei Gan Cai, and every layer of pork is separated by Mei Gan Cai.

13. Take out a pressure-cooker and a steaming stack stand. Add some water with its height below the surface of the stand, and put the bowl of prepared Mei Gan Cai with pork belly on top.

14. Put the lid on and start the steaming process. Start timing when the pot starts to make hissing sound.

15. After 20 minutes, the cooking process if done. Now wait for the pressure-cooker to release its pressure and then open the lid.

16. Take out the bowl with a kitchen tong or oven gloves.